The full auto crowd call hate FOPA as if it was the devil BUT they benefited the most with the ammo and interstate transport laws of FOPA.

The Hughes Amendment banned machine guns. That’s what many remember about FOPA.
In fact, some even call it “the inappropriately named Firearms Owner’s Protection Act” because of the machine gun ban.

It’s called a “poison pill.” It’s a rider on a bill designed to end support thus prevented the bill from become law. FOPA was a major win for pro-gun people and it was done with a very anti-gun congress. This was a Hail Mary play in the political game. And we only had the one chance to make it work!

So you are asking How can something banning guns be pro-gun?

Legislative acts do not create just one law, they create a series of laws. Look at what FOPA did for us:

1) Reigning in ATF harassment

2) Allowed “safe passage” so a person can drive from one gun friendly state to another gun friendly state and NOT have to worry about crazy and counter-intuitive anti-gun laws in the in-between states.

3) Registry prohibition

4) Removed confusion about prohibited persons due to the law have two different versions. (Yes, they screwed up when they passed GCA’68)

5) Ended the ban on mail order ammo

So that is FIVE plus and one minus. Seems like a win to me.
But some people are never happy. For example a reply to my comment above”